Page "Consolation of Philosophy" Paragraph 5

Boethius engages questions such as the nature of predestination and free will, why evil men often prosper and good men fall into ruin, human nature, virtue, and justice.

He speaks about the nature of free will versus determinism when he asks if God knows and sees all, or does man have free will.

To quote V. E.

Watts on Boethius, God is like a spectator at a chariot race ; He watches the action the charioteers perform, but this does not cause them.

On human nature, Boethius says that humans are essentially good and only when they give in to “ wickedness ” do they “ sink to the level of being an animal .” On justice, he says criminals are not to be abused, rather treated with sympathy and respect, using the analogy of doctor and patient to illustrate the ideal relationship between prosecutor and criminal.